With Carnaval just around the corner, I couldn’t resist posting this is an amazing time lapse video of Rio de Janeiro – the City of Samba – made by Keith Loutit and Jarbas Agnelli. The images are captured from Carnaval 2011. Muito legal (very cool)!
The City of Samba from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
After many years living in the United States and an active advocate for Brazilian culture and traditions, it always surprises me how Carnival – the biggest party on earth – is misunderstood by the majority of non-Brazilians. Many people don’t realize that while it’s a festival, it’s also a competition which is hugely complex to organize. In this post, I’d like to give to you a better explanation of how Carnival works and why it’s considered to be one of the greatest experiences in the world.
Carnival is a Christian tradition that was historically absorbed by every country that receives Catholic influences. Carnival takes place 46 days before Easter. The religious significant of the tradition is to abstain from eating meat (fish is acceptable) from all meals until after the Easter. The term “Carnival” means carne vale – that translation for from the Italian origin means “farewell meat.”
As a Brazilian growing up inside the Carnival culture, I can tell you that not every Brazilian likes Carnival. Some people complain that the country as a whole stops for the festivities (which is true) and wastes precious time from a business/productivity perspective. But it’s important to remember that Carnival itself is as industry that brings more than 1 billion Reais and brings 400,000 tourists to Rio de Janeiro alone.
Every State in Brazil celebrates Carnival but Rio de Janeiro was the first one to be produced on a professional scale, with huge monetary investments and tons of media coverage. Every year thousands of people work for each school of samba inside barracões (storage wear house) producing the floats (you can see a big one with hearts at the picture on the top), sewing complex costumes for the hundreds of participants in each school. Some of the larger schools have more than 7,000 people!
The competition
Every Carnival with parade is a competition. Groups of people from a neighborhood start getting organized and play samba for fun, but over the years these groups grow larger and get more organized. They elected a President and create an entity to practice playing percussion instruments once or twice a week. The first step to creating a new school of samba is to form a bloco. A bloco is a group of people who come together organically and start participating in the street Carnival (not the official sambódromo but in the neighborhood streets) wearing a politically incorrect costume, usually a manifestation of some cause. As an example, in 2010 a famous clown was elected to the House of Representatives in Brasília – Tiririca is the name of the clown. In the following, carnival hundreds of people were wearing costumes representing the clown, a Brazilian way to make fun and protest with humor.
Once the school is formed and they have a theme for the next carnival, it’s time to think about the samba.
The Samba
Samba is a musical genre originally from the state of Bahia (in the Northeast), brought to Brazil during the slave trade between Portugal and Africa. The Brazilian slaves mixed the African religious traditions with their music, creating a true culture melting pot between African and Brazilian culture. Examples of different sambas are:
Played in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, samba-enredo is played fast and is written by a group of composers that use a theme as a guideline for the lyrics. Many samba-enredo will written but only one is choosen to represent the school in the avenue. The enredo is a written as a reflection of a political view, a historical event, or an local or international issue.
Axé music is played in the Carnival of Salvador – Bahia, played over trios-elétricos – a truck with a full band in the top and equipped with a high power sound system. In Salvador you can buy a abadá (a t-shirt with the logo of the musical group with a cool design that also serves as an entrance ticket for the event). To have access to the event you will need to wear the t-shirt.
Very similar of the carnival in Salvador, the micaretas are very popular in the north of Brazil. People dance behind bands and trios-elétricos. Micaretas can happen anytime during the year, not just during carnival.
During the samba-enredo process, the carnavalesco – the Art Director - will design the costumes for each bloco. Blocos are groups of 200 – 400 people, depending how many blocos are participating in the parade.
P.S.: To best learn even more about Brazilian music refer to a older post by clicking here.
The Alas
Alas are segments (usually with between 50/200 people) that wear the same costumes, they represent a historical fact in the chosen theme. During the Carnival presentation you will see alas, one after another that represent a particular perspective or angle of the bigger theme. Imagine if the theme was “The United States of America – from Thomas Jefferson to Obama”, one ala could represent George Washington and all the components of this ala will relate to the first President of the United States.
The Carro Alegórico
Carro alegórico is a truck made with metal and wood built to support a huge structure with lots of people on top. The floats can’t have an engine and have to be push by people (usually people from the school that want to have fun in the parade but don’t want to wear a costume). Below you can watch a video about a great carro alegórico from the school Unidos da Tijuca – Rio de Janeiro:
Each school of samba has between 50 and 60 minutes to cross the whole avenue, if it takes them longer than that they’ll start losing points. There are several requirements that a school needs to meet in order to score high in the competition. For example, the Commission of Front – usually 10/15 guys open the school parade, the allegories – the scenery organized at the top of the carros alegóricos and the size of the cars can’t be different from the ones already decided by the judges. The plot-theme – how the school of samba explained the theme in the avenue through the development of the costumes and the composition of the samba. Many more requirements will affect the scores given by the judges. At the end of carnival the scores will be tallied to determine the Carnival champion of that year.
I hope this gives you some insight into how Carnival has evolved overtime, as well as how it has developed not only into a great celebration but a top-notch competition as well.
If you’d like to participate in the Carnival of São Paulo, Adventures in Brazil can make your dream a reality! We have a tour organized and ready for Carnival 2013. For more information please click here.
The plan to build a vertical generator of sustainable energy has been all over the news – especially in Brazil. It’s a bold statement Brazil is making by shining the 2016 Olympic spotlight on renewable energy.
Designed by Rafaa Architecture & Design in Zurich, this vertical concept structure will be placed in Cotonduba Island and will generate renewable energy during the day for use in the Olympic Village. Produced by solar panels, the excess power will be used to pump sea water inside a tank built as a tower. At night the water will be released, producing energy to be used in the city and creating the stunning cascade effect you see in the picture below.
Personally, I have mixed feelings about interfering with the natural beauty of Rio – if you’ve been there you know what I’m talking about! The landscape of Rio de Janeiro is naturally amazing, surrounded by mountains and spilling out into the sparkling Atlantic ocean. But maybe this project will be another attraction for the Marvelous City. What is your opinion about it? Do you think the Solar City Tower adds or detracts value for the Olympics?
Olympic fever is everywhere – have you felt it? Everyone is glued to the TV/internet, following the games and rooting for their favorite teams and countries. You get excited and promise yourself that in 2016 you will be in Brazil to watch the games live – for sure. Right on! If you’ve never been to Rio, this is a great opportunity to visit the most beautiful city in the world (believe me! I’m from São Paulo and I have to admit..Rio is extraordinarily beautiful) and watch one of the most exciting events in the world, the Summer Olympic Games (Games of the XXXI Olympiad). I found this fantastic video created by the Rio 2016 Olympic organizers and would like to share with you.
For those who want to know Rio like the “palm of your hand” (a Brazilian expression that means you are very comfortable with the routine, location, etc ) or dream of visiting one of the most famous destinations in South America, this post will help to give you a clear sense how the Rio the games will unfold; everything from location, to transportation, to how the Olympic Village will be built, etc.
This video below is presented by 4 Brazilian kids who explain the 4 zones of Rio that are being completely remodeled to receive this global event. Enjoy!
One of the most important cultural symbols in the Brazilian culture is the “Festa Junina” – June Festival. This festival originally came from Portugal, a country deeply rooted in Catholic tradition. June is the month that commemorates most famous saints of Catholicism: Saint Anthony on June 13th, Saint John Baptist on June 24th, and Saint Peter on June 29th. According to anthropologists, Festa Junina started before the Christian era with the summer solstice, when the Celtics and Egyptians celebrated the end of the harvest season.
Quadrilha dancing in Oakland - CA
The native Brazilian Indians have their own celebrations during winter (remember that in the southern hemisphere the seasons are reversed), those celebrations were added to the Portuguese celebrations brought by the Jesuits. Brazilian culture by nature embraces and incorporates traditions and festivities from all over the world.
During the celebrations of Festa Junina, you will taste lots of delicious foods, like pinhão, Curau, pamonha, doce de abóbora, sweet-potato and manioc (cassava, yucca or yuca…depending on where you are from). All of these dishes are part of native Brazilian cuisine and incorporate influence from Portuguese dishes like quentão, pé-de-moleque, bolo de fubá and etc. We have our own version of the mulled wine with spices and small apple cubes.
Traditional Festa Junina flags with USA and Brazil flags.
Dancing during the Festa Junina is always the highlight of the festival. Usually you’ll see a theater performance where a single man is pressured to marry a girl because she is pregnant and her father expects him to take responsibility. During the performance, traditional songs are sung and everyone participates, including the families of the bride and groom, priests, police officers, and everyone else from the imaginary village. Watch a great Festa Junina dance performance below:
